The 2020 election started a movement for new legislation from the Republican party. Starting in the summer of 2021, Republicans in Texas are trying to pass Senate Bill 1 and House Bill 3. Republican governor Greg Abbott states that,

 “Senate Bill 1 will solidify trust and confidence in the outcome of our elections by making it easier to vote and harder to cheat. I look forward to signing Senate Bill 1 into law, ensuring election integrity in Texas.”said Abbott. Once Abbot signs this bill, Texas will be the latest GOP run state that enacts new voting restrictions. 

Candis Houston, living in Houston, went to Auston to testify against the voting bills. Sharing her personal experience with drive through voting,  

“We should be encouraging people to vote and not limiting them by limiting where and when they can vote,” said Houston. That cases of voter fraud are extremely rare, or few to none. 

 Goals of these bills are to ban late night voting (after 9pm), which inevitably means no 24 hour voting, drive-thru voting for non disabled people, and make mail voting a more severe process. Democrats object to these extra precautions stating that it’s a violation of rights. That people of color in Texas are the ones who utilize the variety of times, saying that in past elections, night voting is one of the most popular times among them.

 Democrats walked out and returned after their 38-day walkout. They went to Washington in July in hopes of blocking these proposals. This tactic allowed for the house not having enough members for a quorum which led to the inability to move forward. Democrats also used this tactic back in May as well.

 Many Republicans angered with the Democrats decision threatened arrest when they returned back to Texas. The Republican House speaker Dade Phelan states he would have a plane head to Washington to bring democrats back. There is also backlash on Democrats for supposedly wasting public money, but they defended themselves saying that it was all funded by donations through the state’s Democratic Caucus.

 Having former president Donald Trump make fictitious claims about the 2020 election which have all been proven invalid in court, created a disturbance in the Republican party, thus leading to these demands for changes.